//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: How to survive? // Story: Daring Do: A survivor is born // by andmos //------------------------------// Daring Do: A survivor is born Writer: AndMos Editor: Mooreb Proofreader: rainbowithextradash ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Following story is based on My little Pony: Friendship is Magic and Tomb Raider. All rights and prestige deserved by the respective owners and accompany. This story has no knowledge to the game Tomb Raider and can contain spoilers unknowingly. You have been warned. Big thanks to my fellow pre-readers, my editor and my proofreader. Without your help, this story would not even exist. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Have you stood on a mountain surrounded by clear view around you, knowing that you had earned the respect for the mountain and for the nature surrounding it? That feeling was like the summary of what Daring Do felt when she looked around for a place to find necessary supplies, like medicine, food, shelter, etc. She needed to go down the mountain, which she nearly had died in, to find all the stuff, and more. She was afraid of what was lying ahead in the future. Maybe that was the reason she did not started the long march down. On the other hoof, she was exposed to the wild life that was surrounded the island. Either way, she sat there to lick the wounds and to make a plan. She needed bandages to her wing. That was the first priority. Blood that was running of the left wing felt like an hourglass. If she did not find bandages to her wing, she would bleed to death. Wings, for the pegasus, is the most powerful, yet the most vulnerable muscle for them. If the wings were suffering from a wound, it will take time for it to heal properly. It is also the must hurtful organs except solar plexus. That thing was what Daring suffered right now. A huge pain in her left wing, that was driving her to madness, put a pure scream into her mouth. She did not feel it when she hit the stick, maybe because of the shock. She grunted as she recovers from the pain. She had to search for medical supplies. She started to climb down while rubbing her wing like an infant. The road she chose was sloppy, hard to walk on, and had more rots that were waiting for her to lose the grip for the rocks that were waiting for her. The track was difficult to find, as there was not one. The overgrown paths she chosen had filled with wet rocks, high rots and deep holes. Each step she took, filled her with lactic. She often took breaks to rest herself. She had to walk sideways to keep intact with the balance. That thing, and for the expert mountain climbing, cause her to bleed more from her wing. She winced when she felt the warm blood ran thought her stomach. She saw up from the ground. She had not gone long and she knew it. The three lines were visible in the dawn. She had to get there before sundown. It will be a hard marsh down there if she had that in mind. She pried to Celestia for strength as she started climbing down again. More rots, more stone and more mud, a survivor life concisely. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After lot of effort, lot of blood loss, an unclean dam and some wild guess chases, she finally got to the three lines. It was past sundown. The nightly animals that were hiding in the sunlight came to life in a roar of sounds. She camped near a riverbank with running water. After the incident on the dam, she had learned to trust running water. At least, the water in the running river was clean enough to drink. She drank swallow after swallow with the blessing water. She would need that extra water supply tomorrow. After she quenched her thirst, she cleaned up all the wounds she had got in the last few hours. She had fallen into a thorn bush, and all the thorns that went into her skin were stuck in place. She winced when she pulled out the first thorn, but bit after bit she got used to the pain. The campfire she had set up, glowed nicely and welcoming. It also provided some protection against the predators around the island. It took an hour to get fire to the woods without proper lightning, but it was worth it. She made a shelter of leaf and bushes. It provides her more protection and warmth. She made it by using stones to her tool, the only thing she could have found for a proper tool. However safe she was, she was fresh out in the wild. She made many mistakes, and tomorrow would been the proof for that matter. Either way, all of it, even the wound in the wing, could wait until tomorrow. She lay down in the grass and relaxed. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Daring woke up feeling wet. She opens up her eyes seeing that the whole tent, covered in water. She tastes it. It was fresh water from the river. She had laid down in a flooded riverbank. She quickly got up and out of the tent. She was lucky that she had not camped one meter ahead of her. The water there was running fast and the steam was impossible to enter with or without a boat. It had rained heavy last night. She stood up faster than light and ran out of the water. She promised herself not do this again. She filled herself with the water and stepped onward to the graveyard of ships. The wood was thick, deep and filled with bugs. They were hanging into her like mosquitos for a sweet neck. In the distant, she heard bird songs. It was a lovely day if she had taken the time to enjoy it. However, she did not take herself the time off for things like smelling flowers or see the wonders in the nature. She had to get to her destination before the weather changed. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Daring’s vacations point, she saw many ships, a lot of them where from the early 18th. She could figure it out by seeing the majestic sails and mast. That and the guns they had in the side of those ships. She was looking for her ship, Endurance. It was just common sense that all she would need to survive was in her ship, but to find it was another story. She had to track it only using her vision and some blurry memory about where it laid. Suddenly she saw it, the ship. It was broken in two. It had a metal spread over like cities dumps in some bigger cities Equestria had. The waves hit the scars the ship was on, was like an invisible countdown clock. It was a matter of time before the seawater took the ship into the endless Ocean. Daring heard some voices down in a hole. They spoke in Equestrian. “Do you think the water will bury her? I heard that all bodies will float in the water,” said the first one. The voice sounded like a stallion. “Nah, I just got the order from the boss. He had his fun with her, but now, she only has been meat to the flies. The only thing that they did with her was the usual. You know, that kind of stuff,” another voice was deep down there and it sounded like another stallion. “Shut up lads, we don’t like to be here when the tides hit here,” another voice from the hole. Daring sneaks slowly to the hole to see what is going on down there. She accidentally hit a rock and it fell down into the hole. A loud thump and some clicks where sounded in there. “What was that? Hello, anyone there? Come out! We are armed and not scared to pull the trigger.” Silence. “Iron, look up in the hole and see if there are anyone up there, Why do I have to do the dirty work,” said the stallion named Iron to the other voices. “Because you have wings, featherbrain,” said the other voice. That was the clue to hide for Daring. She saw around her and saw a large rock covering the vision of the entrance of the hole. She sneaks toward there and hide not a second too long. Either if it was survivors or thugs, Daring didn’t take the chance to been seen because of what they were talking about. Sounds of wings flapping was what Daring had waited on. It held there for some minutes before it died down into the echo of the hole. She sneaks in again, this time careful not hit any rocks along the way. “No one is up there. Probably some animals that hit some rocks and fell down here,” “Good, now where is the boss?” Daring leaned towards the hole and saw three stallions talk together. One was orange, one was blue and one was green. It was an earth pony, a pegasus and an unicorn. Iron was must likely the orange one because of the wings. “Right here gentle colts,” another voice filled the cave they were. All of them turned towards the voice and a unicorn with yellow mane, green eyes and purple coat came in vision. “How bad is the body?” ask he. “We could not do anything about it. The body is to dead to recover anything more than glue,” Daring winced by that. That was barbaric. “Can I see the body before we leave?” “Sure, no problem boss,” said the earth pony. Daring knew that there was no turning back if she saw the body, yet as a black bag came in vision, the curious took the best of her. They opened the bag and Daring muted a scream. Right there in front of her was Steff.